"This is really valuable to flood it, if you look at the benefits that Sarawak gets from it."

Development benefits

That is the choice Malaysia has made. A standing forest does not earn much in the way of revenue.

A little eco-tourism, perhaps, or a few million dollars from the United Nations' scheme to prevent deforestation, cannot compete with the billions of dollars they have already received from foreign investors.

At a place called Samalaju, Adie Abad from the Bintulu Development Authority is escorting some Indian businessmen around the building site that will soon be an industrial park, trying to persuade them to invest, to build a steel works on the site.

Dodging bulldozers and trucks hauling gravel and steel, or diggers clearing the land, Mr Adie has high hopes for this place.

"With the creation of this huge investment coming into this area," he says, "we expect a lot of job opportunities as well as business opportunities for the local, Malaysian people."

"Maybe... in the next five years, you won't see those trees any more."

When asked whether Borneo prides itself on its trees, he says: "We will plant those trees later on - alongside the road, no problem. But we have to give way to the industry to come in."

Mr Adie's boss, the head of the development authority, Mohidin Haji Ishak, says: "Our priority is to have our people enjoy life.

"And, of course, we have a vision to become a developed nation by 2020.

"What we do here is as a result of the demand by the world, you know. We are reacting to the demand. I mean there is money to be made. Why not?"